This is why I don't go out anywhere...
Time for a bitch session!
Wal-Mart oh, Wal-Mart. What a wonderful place you are...full of loonies and religious freaks (this does not include all the workers btw - <3 to
kuriah). Those of you who are religious and feel the need to "testify to the non-believers and convert them" had best not read any farther (if there are indeed, any of you like that on my list). Oh yeah, possiblity of just me being effing weird and anti-people up ahead too.
I really dislike going to any place alone. It used to be because I thought I was a very lonely person and really just craved companionship even to do the slightest of tasks--a dependency if you will. Well, tonight I found out that no, it's not dependency that keeps me wanting to go places with other people; it's the constant fear of being trapped in an awkward situation by strangers. Namely, strangers who come up and feel it's okay to automatically talk to the blue haired girl, because obviously she just screams "Hey! I'm a people person! I want you to talk to meee!" when she is shopping quietly, minding her own business, in the sewing and crafts section.
It's not that I mind religion (although I do believe organized religion is very much the devil). It's not that I mind people who are religious. Indeed I have many friends who differ in opinion from me but also, my friends do not try to promote their religion to me unless I ASK about it. They have all been very kind and understanding when it comes to me and religion and if they are curious about my issues with it, they find a way to ask me about it without attempting to prove me wrong at every turn and secretly convert me. Tonight I had, out of the blue, some stranger walk up to me and start asking me questions "for a project." Automatically I ask "For what class?" Seeing as how I'm a college student, this person is of average college age (looks-wise) and we are in a college town at one of the larger known college shopping areas.
First up, it's a guy. No offense, but that's automatic defense mode for me. If I'm alone somewhere and a strange guy just walks up to me and starts randomly talking to me, I freak out a bit. Blame that on the paranoia my mom has managed to instill in me (mix that with distrust of the male species from personal experience and brew for about 5 years for a nice "Guys = Auto-creepy" mode). By freak out, I mean I get defensive. I try to be a nice person, really I do so I kindly, genuinely talk to him in hopes it's a question about my hair or clothing or something.
Turns out he was doing a "project for church." So he began to ask questions like "what do you think happens after you die?" and some questions that make me VERY uncomfortable. I don't like death, I don't want to think about it right now. I've had too many family members die this past year for me to think about it without curling into a little ball, crying, wondering what will happen to me.
Essentially, this turned into a "I'm going to prove you wrong on every point you have fault with about religion/the Bible/Darwin/etc"...which BTW, I don't really know if I believe in Evolution Theory. Because if Darwinism REALLY worked I wouldn't have to deal with HALF the idiots I do (hell, I may not have even been around! I was always last in track, hmmm...). I digress. As far as I know Darwinism and Evolution Theory are two different things.
...I'll be damned if I believe in "intellegent design" though. Fuck that. Sorry if you do, but just don't ever talk with me about that lest you want to hear me rant. A lot.
Back to Mr. Project Dude here. While I'm looking for things to paint and make patterns with in the trim section, we go over things like the fact that religion has always been used to curb the people and keep them in control (which he denied), the fact that the Bible contradicts itself and has been handed down from other guys to other guys and re-written and re-written over and over again so who knows if it could be the ORIGINAL dialogue--the fact that MEN wrote it actually didn't get to be a big point with me oddly enough--and the fact that there are 15 years of Jesus's life missing from the Bible AND the fact that the Vadican is holding certain books/pslams(right term there? I dunno) from the public (which he denied as well--yes all of it), and the idea that Darwin refuted his own ideas on his death bed(his idea, not mine).....which I didn't really give a rats ass about anyway.
So why am I angry you might find yourself asking? Because I'm not well read enough to provide good back up information and I ended up looking like an idiot. This guy wanted me to give him DIRECT examples. I don't have a good enough memory for that! Even if I had read the Bible all the way through (I've tried...and failed miserably, several times) I would not have been able to memorize where what contradicts itself with whatever. He even went so far as to ask me if he gave me his e-mail address if I would give him examples. I told him I was busy with senior art show and by the time I was unbusy I would've forgotten about it. Thankfully he didn't shove his e-mail address on me.
I just get very angry when things involve any ammount of intellgence I might have. I doubt he could quote direct scripture for me either (not that I would've wanted him to) but I REALLY don't like people who try to confront people about what they believe. I let this guy know up front it's what I believe. That, as an existentiallist and humanist, my experiences in life and my own personal views have led me to believe what I do. I told him that it was also the same for anyone else around me, no matter what they believed they all have made their own decision based upon their own criteria. Ugh, I just feel so belittled right now. Why can't people respect other people's space and choices? ESPECIALLY when they don't even KNOW the person.
Sometimes people think they're being kind when they're really just butting in where they don't belong. And when they see they're univited what do they do? Press onwards! It really pisses me off. You don't see me trying to go and convert anyone into being an athiest. I realize that people will make their own decisions in life and you can't control them no matter how hard you try. To some this sounds defeatist, but to me it sounds empowering for everyone. I have a respect for people when they make a decision so close to their hearts and being. I try not to bash the religion itself because I could be wrong! Who knows. But that's not an invitation to come up and "testify" to me about how "God is good, God is great!" Nevermind the fact that when THEY take the BIble out of context it's okay when they're saying things like "being gay is bad" or "sex before marriage equals you're a bad person and are going to Hell!" But when I say the Bible contradicts itself, they tell me I'm taking shit out of context and therefore it doesn't count! ARRGH!
There are VERY few things more annoying than acting like "your way" is the "correct way" and everyone else's way is "wrong" unless they have your same views. There are also few things that are stupider than that. If you go around telling everyone their wrong and trying to fight the world, you're probably not going to have any friends or anything for that matter.
Ugh, must stop bitching about this. I need to go to bed and I could write a 12 page paper on this kind of thing at LEAST. One thing I will tell people to check out however is Penn & Teller's Bullshit! episode on the Bible. Awesome guys, awesome show, and that episode has an awesome point. To paraphrase: There's no better material to make you an athiest other than by reading the Bible itself.
--
I still don't know what the guy was really doing or after. He was taking notes though. I wonder if he wrote down 'blue haired girls are heathen devils and will perish in Hell!....make sure to back this up wtih that one scripture."
--
For those of you who skipped the rant, the skinny is someone upset me by making me feel dumb and unprepared amongst other things at Wal-Mart of all places. I'm offended on many levels but I went with the religious side of it.
In other news, stayed up doing some art canvases. Yay for LJ cut for those of you who don't wanna see em. I'd love some feedback however keep in mind that some of them are in the VERY early stages and are basically only backgrounds currently. I <3 mixed media. I should've gotten that extra painting degree. That way I could've had 4 concentrations, whee!
Mould of a bottle for my show wasn't dry today so I couldn't make a slip casting of it yet. Placed it under the kiln so life should be better tomorrow I hope. I'm still very paranoid about my show not being done (or just sucking ass) though.
Currently covered in paint. Methinks I'll wash up and go the hell to bed before my throat decides to try and close up anymore. Yuck.
EDIT: I was gonna upload some pictures and share them, but apparently photobucket is updating. Boo. Later then.
Wal-Mart oh, Wal-Mart. What a wonderful place you are...full of loonies and religious freaks (this does not include all the workers btw - <3 to
kuriah). Those of you who are religious and feel the need to "testify to the non-believers and convert them" had best not read any farther (if there are indeed, any of you like that on my list). Oh yeah, possiblity of just me being effing weird and anti-people up ahead too.
I really dislike going to any place alone. It used to be because I thought I was a very lonely person and really just craved companionship even to do the slightest of tasks--a dependency if you will. Well, tonight I found out that no, it's not dependency that keeps me wanting to go places with other people; it's the constant fear of being trapped in an awkward situation by strangers. Namely, strangers who come up and feel it's okay to automatically talk to the blue haired girl, because obviously she just screams "Hey! I'm a people person! I want you to talk to meee!" when she is shopping quietly, minding her own business, in the sewing and crafts section.
It's not that I mind religion (although I do believe organized religion is very much the devil). It's not that I mind people who are religious. Indeed I have many friends who differ in opinion from me but also, my friends do not try to promote their religion to me unless I ASK about it. They have all been very kind and understanding when it comes to me and religion and if they are curious about my issues with it, they find a way to ask me about it without attempting to prove me wrong at every turn and secretly convert me. Tonight I had, out of the blue, some stranger walk up to me and start asking me questions "for a project." Automatically I ask "For what class?" Seeing as how I'm a college student, this person is of average college age (looks-wise) and we are in a college town at one of the larger known college shopping areas.
First up, it's a guy. No offense, but that's automatic defense mode for me. If I'm alone somewhere and a strange guy just walks up to me and starts randomly talking to me, I freak out a bit. Blame that on the paranoia my mom has managed to instill in me (mix that with distrust of the male species from personal experience and brew for about 5 years for a nice "Guys = Auto-creepy" mode). By freak out, I mean I get defensive. I try to be a nice person, really I do so I kindly, genuinely talk to him in hopes it's a question about my hair or clothing or something.
Turns out he was doing a "project for church." So he began to ask questions like "what do you think happens after you die?" and some questions that make me VERY uncomfortable. I don't like death, I don't want to think about it right now. I've had too many family members die this past year for me to think about it without curling into a little ball, crying, wondering what will happen to me.
Essentially, this turned into a "I'm going to prove you wrong on every point you have fault with about religion/the Bible/Darwin/etc"...which BTW, I don't really know if I believe in Evolution Theory. Because if Darwinism REALLY worked I wouldn't have to deal with HALF the idiots I do (hell, I may not have even been around! I was always last in track, hmmm...). I digress. As far as I know Darwinism and Evolution Theory are two different things.
...I'll be damned if I believe in "intellegent design" though. Fuck that. Sorry if you do, but just don't ever talk with me about that lest you want to hear me rant. A lot.
Back to Mr. Project Dude here. While I'm looking for things to paint and make patterns with in the trim section, we go over things like the fact that religion has always been used to curb the people and keep them in control (which he denied), the fact that the Bible contradicts itself and has been handed down from other guys to other guys and re-written and re-written over and over again so who knows if it could be the ORIGINAL dialogue--the fact that MEN wrote it actually didn't get to be a big point with me oddly enough--and the fact that there are 15 years of Jesus's life missing from the Bible AND the fact that the Vadican is holding certain books/pslams(right term there? I dunno) from the public (which he denied as well--yes all of it), and the idea that Darwin refuted his own ideas on his death bed(his idea, not mine).....which I didn't really give a rats ass about anyway.
So why am I angry you might find yourself asking? Because I'm not well read enough to provide good back up information and I ended up looking like an idiot. This guy wanted me to give him DIRECT examples. I don't have a good enough memory for that! Even if I had read the Bible all the way through (I've tried...and failed miserably, several times) I would not have been able to memorize where what contradicts itself with whatever. He even went so far as to ask me if he gave me his e-mail address if I would give him examples. I told him I was busy with senior art show and by the time I was unbusy I would've forgotten about it. Thankfully he didn't shove his e-mail address on me.
I just get very angry when things involve any ammount of intellgence I might have. I doubt he could quote direct scripture for me either (not that I would've wanted him to) but I REALLY don't like people who try to confront people about what they believe. I let this guy know up front it's what I believe. That, as an existentiallist and humanist, my experiences in life and my own personal views have led me to believe what I do. I told him that it was also the same for anyone else around me, no matter what they believed they all have made their own decision based upon their own criteria. Ugh, I just feel so belittled right now. Why can't people respect other people's space and choices? ESPECIALLY when they don't even KNOW the person.
Sometimes people think they're being kind when they're really just butting in where they don't belong. And when they see they're univited what do they do? Press onwards! It really pisses me off. You don't see me trying to go and convert anyone into being an athiest. I realize that people will make their own decisions in life and you can't control them no matter how hard you try. To some this sounds defeatist, but to me it sounds empowering for everyone. I have a respect for people when they make a decision so close to their hearts and being. I try not to bash the religion itself because I could be wrong! Who knows. But that's not an invitation to come up and "testify" to me about how "God is good, God is great!" Nevermind the fact that when THEY take the BIble out of context it's okay when they're saying things like "being gay is bad" or "sex before marriage equals you're a bad person and are going to Hell!" But when I say the Bible contradicts itself, they tell me I'm taking shit out of context and therefore it doesn't count! ARRGH!
There are VERY few things more annoying than acting like "your way" is the "correct way" and everyone else's way is "wrong" unless they have your same views. There are also few things that are stupider than that. If you go around telling everyone their wrong and trying to fight the world, you're probably not going to have any friends or anything for that matter.
Ugh, must stop bitching about this. I need to go to bed and I could write a 12 page paper on this kind of thing at LEAST. One thing I will tell people to check out however is Penn & Teller's Bullshit! episode on the Bible. Awesome guys, awesome show, and that episode has an awesome point. To paraphrase: There's no better material to make you an athiest other than by reading the Bible itself.
--
I still don't know what the guy was really doing or after. He was taking notes though. I wonder if he wrote down 'blue haired girls are heathen devils and will perish in Hell!....make sure to back this up wtih that one scripture."
--
For those of you who skipped the rant, the skinny is someone upset me by making me feel dumb and unprepared amongst other things at Wal-Mart of all places. I'm offended on many levels but I went with the religious side of it.
In other news, stayed up doing some art canvases. Yay for LJ cut for those of you who don't wanna see em. I'd love some feedback however keep in mind that some of them are in the VERY early stages and are basically only backgrounds currently. I <3 mixed media. I should've gotten that extra painting degree. That way I could've had 4 concentrations, whee!
Mould of a bottle for my show wasn't dry today so I couldn't make a slip casting of it yet. Placed it under the kiln so life should be better tomorrow I hope. I'm still very paranoid about my show not being done (or just sucking ass) though.
Currently covered in paint. Methinks I'll wash up and go the hell to bed before my throat decides to try and close up anymore. Yuck.
EDIT: I was gonna upload some pictures and share them, but apparently photobucket is updating. Boo. Later then.